


Olfactory Fixation

by shaenie



Category: LOTR RPS
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-01-18
Updated: 2003-01-18
Packaged: 2017-10-12 05:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/121063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shaenie/pseuds/shaenie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written in response to the Smell Challenge for Contre La Montre.  Finished in 26 minutes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Olfactory Fixation

Elijah has a thing about smelling his food before he eats it. It's a matter of not wanting to put it in his mouth if he doesn't like the way it smells. He's always done it, as long as he can remember. The other hobbits laugh at him, which doesn't particularly bother him. From his point of view, the weirdness lies in *not* smelling first. What if it's bad? What if it's spoiled, and you don't check first? Bleh!

They laugh at him, but they take advantage of it, too.

"Hey, Elijah, does this smell right to you?" Dom, holding out the milk, shaking it in its jug so that it sloshes thickly, giving the container a dubious look.

Elijah smiles a little, thinking of Ian, who refers to it as "Elijah's endearing olfactory fixation." He takes the milk from Dom and sniffs it. It's on the cusp, just a hint of sour. It probably wouldn't kill Dom, or even make him sick, but Elijah wouldn't drink it. Dom probably wouldn't be able to even tell. "I wouldn't risk it," he says.

Dom looks crestfallen. "Bugger," he mutters, but he doesn't question Elijah's judgement. He pours the milk into the sink and turns on the faucet to wash it down.

Elijah can feel himself grinning at Dom's pouty expression.

From the doorway, Billy says: "Tea?" in a hopeful voice. His voice is just-woke-up croaky. He's wearing a t-shirt and boxers, and his hair is comically awry.

"Milk's gone over," Dom replies mournfully, tossing the milk container into the bin. He brightens a bit. "Maybe we've got some of that powdered stuff."

He moves closer to Elijah, and begins shuffling through boxed goods in the cabinet behind Elijah's right shoulder. It doesn't occur to Dom that he's invading Elijah's space, and it doesn't occur to Elijah to move away. Normal is relative, after all, and they've all spent a good deal of time in each other's space during the course of this film.

So he's still grinning at Dom's pouting and Billy's wild bed-head, and it's just a normal morning in the smallish kitchen which has seen its share of mornings exactly like this one, when Elijah catches a scent that doesn't quite jibe with the rest of the normal.

He doesn't actually ever think of where the scent is coming from, his nose just sort of pulls him toward it, and without ever quite seeing it happening, he finds himself with his face nearly touching Dom's chest, inhaling deeply.

"What ...?" Dom says, pausing in his rummaging to look down at Elijah. His brows are arched in question.

Elijah can feel that the grin has slipped from his face, and he knows his eyes have widened and his mouth is hanging slightly agape. He's fully aware of how ridiculous he must look, but that doesn't seem to make him any more capable of adjusting his expression.

He looks up at Dom, and his mind is busily cataloguing the things he can smell on Dom. There is Dom's normal smell, slightly smokey sweat from sleep, faint traces of glue, which they all smell of pretty much all the time, faint traces of Dom's shampoo, even fainter hint of fabric softener clinging to Dom's shirt, all normal, standard morning Dom smell. There is also musk, sex-smell, and even that is pretty much normal, because they've all picked someone up at some time or another, and Elijah is used to smelling other men on Dom, just as he is used to smelling women on Billy.

Except Elijah, Billy, and Dom have been together nearly every second of every day for the last four days, and Elijah knows damn well Dom hasn't picked anyone up.

Besides that, it isn't just some guy that he smells on Dom. It's the faint scent of familiar aftershave, not Dom's aftershave, but familiar, nevertheless, and the tang of someone else's sweat, slightly resinous, like fallen pine needles crushed underfoot, also familiar.

Elijah glances at Billy, and Billy meets his eyes, a little flushed. Elijah can feel his lips folding into a grin that he can't stop anymore than he could stop his mouth falling open a few seconds before.

"Err," Dom says. Elijah looks back up at him, and Dom's ears are pink and he looks slightly guilty, like he's been caught sneaking into the refrigerator after midnight to sample the dessert he's already been told he can't have. Elijah can feel his grin widening.

"I'm going to shower," Elijah says, still grinning, moving out of Dom's space and Dom's smell. He passes close enough to Billy to catch his scent, too, like an echo of Dom's, except reversed. He pauses in the hallway, unrepentantly eavesdropping. After a few long seconds of silence, he hears Dom and Billy giggling.

The sound of it, mingled like their scents on each other, only makes Elijah's smile wider.


End file.
